It is with great sadness that I post again for the first time with such sad news.
Earlier today I learned that Dumbarton Football Club’s captain died in a car accident during the weekend. This comes not even a month after he led the club to the Scottish Third Division Championship and only 5 months after bringing a daughter in to the world.
I took a lot of convincing about his ability, but he certainly proved me wrong in the end. He was popular with fans not only of Dumbarton, but also with those of other teams. A genuinely nice man and a player who shall be missed by many.
My condolences to the family and all others connected to the man and the club.
The next few weeks sees two of my most anticapted albums of the year released. They’re both debuts from bands which really gathered momentum throughout 2008.
Grammatics
Grammatics are a band who concentrate on creating intelligent pop songs. They’ve occasionally been accused of being too clever for their own good, though I have to disagree based on their output to date. The really interesting dynamic is that a cellist features prominently, something not often seen in modern popular music. The cello is integrated really well with the rest of the music, it makes you wonder why it isn’t more common. Vocals are likely to be a point of contention for some, falsetto is a bit of a love/hate thing so it’s easy to see why. The really interesting point for me is that one of my favourite songs of last year, New Franchise, hasn’t even made it onto the album. Usually this is a good sign.
Dananananakroyd come from almost the opposite direction. It’s still clever music but, instead of seeming careful and considered, it’s a big, fun punch in the face. The lead single for their debut album Hey Everyone is a bit more relaxed, but features nearly all of their trademark musical touches. Based on their output so far, you can expect intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle eight-outro, but it’s executed in such a way as to make it irresistable. They’re probably going to be more famous as a live band, but I have high hopes for their studio recordings too.
It’s unfortunate that these albums are being released during a hectic period in my year, it will make digesting them a slightly harder process. Expect reviews sometime near the end of May at this rate…
20-11 in my list featured some really great albums, but these are all better in some way than those found lower down in the list.
10. I Like Trains - The Christmas Tree Ship
Despite a change in the way you write their name I Like Trains (iLiKETRAiNS) have kept their quality levels high. This has to be counted as their most cohesive work to date. The EP is really just one long segmented song, it’s atmospheric and also instrumental. It features that clean guitar sound and also plenty of delay. South Shore sounds so delightfully glacial it’s unreal.This really whets my appetite for their forthcoming second album.
9. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I surprised myself with how low In Rainbows came in the list. I have a long standing love affair with the band and a number of the songs on the album. 15 Step is almost everything i look for in a song, expressive drumming, melodic guitar and Thom Yorke’s vocals are fantastic on it. I’ve also loved Nude for a long time in its various guises. At the end of the day though there’s something oddly insubstantial about In Rainbows, all the right pieces are there but somehow there’s still something missing.
8. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Their second album has clearly learnt the lessons from the first. It’s distilled the best elements of the first album into ten brand new songs. The album is better produced and features a better mix of instrumentation throughout. You feel it’s the output of a band that has honed their sound carefully. It also features the delightful little lyric “and we tell ourselves there’s future in the fucking, when there is no fucking future.” That sort of lyric appears more than a few times and is the sort of thing I enjoy.
7. volcano! - Paperwork
Designed to be more mainstream than their fantastically eclectic and bizarre previous album Beautiful Seizure (which is fairly descriptive of the music found within), it shouldn’t make sense that I like this more. I guess they’ve just discovered how to write slightly less abstract tunes and that it turns out is not a bad thing. Featuring excellent percussion, off kilter guitar and enough odd electronic sounds to shake a stick at (but in small doses), they truly are one of the most innovative bands around. Slow Jam is the standout track here, it changes about four or five times throughout. The song features a few crescendos and the moment where the central guitar riff reveals itself is simply delectable.
6. Dananananakroyd - Sissy Hits (EP)
A band all about sheer energy and good tunes. The addition of a sort of floating band member who drifts between extra drums and extra vocals as required is a stroke of genius. It gives the band that extra power and depth that they so clearly display. The other element that really shines through is a great sense of humour, this is clearly a band who are having fun and that needs to be encouraged in this day and age. Their debut album is released this year and should be a contender for album of the year.
5. 65daysofstatic - The Distant And Mechanised Glow Of Eastern European Dance Parties (EP)
65daysofstatic have always straddled the gap between guitar based music, electronica and dance. In this release, which reworks a song from their last LP, the dance element is given a chance to really shine. What follows is an absolutely stunning example of how to take a track and produce two different, excellent dance versions of it; all without ever losing what made the track good in the first place. I can’t wait for their next LP, if it’s anything like this it will be amazing.
4. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath
Many saw this as a return to form, however I saw it as another great stab in a new direction. Amputechre was unpopular despite being an excellent album in its own right, whereas this album almost served as a crazed summation of the band’s work to date. As good for its story as much as anything else (it involves a ouija board, a pan dimensional giant and a curse), the album has an almost crazed feel and this brings out the best in The Mars Volta. Not quite as good as Frances The Mute, but easily their second best album to date.
This album caught me completely off guard. From one member of Field Music, the music has an unmistakable Field Music feel to it, though the drums are absolutely brutal. They pound away providing an amazing sense of momentum to most of the album. The album has a real murder mystery feel to it, much of it accusatory and oddly sinister. The album has a delicious dark quality and at 32 minutes in length leaves you satisfied, yet wanting more. A neat trick to pull off. The climax, Scratch The Surface, is an amazing finish; it feels like everything has been building to that point.
2. Youthmovies - Good Nature
Good Nature was a long time coming. Youthmovies have been on the music scene for so long, it’s difficult to believe that this is their debut LP. It is the finest blend of their musical style to date. The guitars can be melodic and vicious, the trumpet can come to the fore or merely provide support, the bass and drums are as driving and expressive as ever. Real standout moments are Last Night Of The Proms, If You’d Seen A Battlefield and Archive It Everywhere, though there’s no weak track here. Influences are diverse and even elements of Steve Reich can be found in the album. In any other year this would have been my album of the year.
1. ¡Forward, Russia! - Life Processes
An album which betters the band’s first effort in every single way. The progression in style and composition is remarkable, with a new found interest in guitar loops providing in interesting bed for the album. Whiskas guitar work is exemplary as ever, some tracks having looped guitar which is hard to keep track of let alone put in place in the first place. Katie’s drumming is expressive and intricate as ever, often coming to the fore unexpectedly mid-song. Rob’s bass fits perfectly as ever and Tom’s vocals and lyrics are exemplary once more. A brave record, including a piano led track which is as beautifully fragile as other moments are vicious. Easily my album of the year, not a single weak track.
The original game was one of my favourites, but I certainly didn’t expect this from the sequel. If I couldn’t wait for it before, I really can’t wait for it now. My expectations have been turned on their head, I now have no idea what’s going to happen.
So I finally got around to compiling my top 20 albums from 2008. It’s just a little late and probably a little controversial in places. Still most people can probably take a guess at my top 2. That’s for another time though, here are 20-11 in my top 20. I’ve included EPs as albums rather than do separate lists.
20. Vessels - White Fields And Open Devices
Vessels debut album proved to be something quite exciting. It’s an atmospheric post-rock affair, with plenty of interesting qualities. Heavier than most of the rest of the genre it reminds me of a more modern Upcdowncleftrightcabc+start, only with more electronics. That’s relatively high praise given how much I enjoyed that band’s album.
19. Polar Bear - Polar Bear
This album suffers from the fact that I bought it in 2009. It’s a heady jazz fusion affair that is uncompromising in its musical vision. The percussion as ever is outstanding, as is the saxophone. If there is one weak area in the album it is its length, it seems much too long. Despite being varied, it can’t quite sustain itself throughout the running time.
18. Youthmovies - Polyp EP
You get the feeling that this may just be the reheated leftovers from their fantastic debut album, with a few obscure recordings thrown in. For the songs Magic Diamond, Magdalen Bridge / Golden Palace (Hugo Manuel Remix) and Polyp alone this EP deserves to be in the list. It’s just a shame that the other tracks on the EP are a little weak. Magic Diamond in particular deserves high praise, it’s classic Youthmovies with complex melodic instrumentation meeting quickfire wonderfully structured lyrics.
17. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Calibration
Calibration is one of three albums Omar Rodriguez-Lopez was involved with on this list. Calibration is a much more laid back affair than most of his output.This is exemplified by Grey [Cancion Para El] which starts out with wistful violin. The album is generally very good, though lacks the punch of Omar’s better work.
16. Foals - Antidotes
Antidotes is an odd beast. It’s all very minimalist, with clean guitars and careful song structures. Math-pop this is not, everything is in a relatively straight forward time signature. However it’s interesting to note that they’ve taken the Battles sound and made it a million times more accessible to the general public. Tron is the standout track here; it pops, buzzes and fizzes in a way the other tracks don’t, all the while maintaining that trademark floaty, yet sharp, guitar sound.
15. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fungus
More visceral than his other solo album on the list, Absence has the punch lacking from Calibration. It sounds much more closely related to The Mars Volta’s work and probably benefits from being slightly less abstract. It spans the genres and is as ever full of plenty of experimentation. It also retains that latin, jazzy, character that sets Omar apart as one of the best musicians of this generation. It can be a hard listen if you’re not into unusual sounds and song structures, but if you can put up with it you are well rewarded.
14. Rolo Tomassi - Hysterics
A highly atmospheric album, from a band not quite sure of who they are yet. Much more mature than their earlier output, you sense that they are realising when to subvert and when to play it straight laced. They swing between quiet and loud, soft vocals and growls synth led and guitar led. Ones to watch for the future.
13. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now Youngster…
Los Campesinos! don’t make sense. They manage to be almost painfully happy without being twee and painfully self aware while still being good. The boy / girl vocals work really well as do the frequent inclusions of gang vocals. This their debut album features perfect pop tracks and really clever lyrics. The happy sounds often hide dark lyrics, they’re usually well observed too. Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks is the track to check out here.
12. Adam Gnade - Trailerparks
A tour only CDR, but it counts as a release in my book. Adam Gnade always delivers with his spoken word tracks. It doesn’t matter what instrumentation is behind (and its often varied) Adam delivers the goods. December, January - Ruins and Strange Worship exemplifies this with a military march style tune, ending with a somewhat less than sincere refrain of “god bless the USA”. Gnade is always evocative with his poetry (and that’s what it is) and with a good eye for a tune and varied instrumentation, you can’t go wrong.
11. Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light
Like Los Campesinos! but on fire after heaving eaten their body weight in sherbet. Boy / girl vocals once more define the band, though this time the music doesn’t even stray near twee. It’s much more aggressive and intensely exciting than Los Campesinos too. They’re at their best when mixing synth with the rest of their music,exemplified by Salt, Pepa and Spinderella (the standout track). A slow synth buildup, harmonising /interjecting vocals, then the best “do, do, do, do, do” section of the year. The track later explodes. Later, Yr All Just Jealous degenerates into a lovely vocal ditty and segues marvelously into the brilliant synth led Absolute Balance. This so easily could have made the top 10.
That rounds up part 1 of my top 20. I think this exemplifies what a great year it’s been. There’s more than a few albums here that could easily have made my top ten in another year.
For the purposes of this assessment, there are a few games which are certainly in contention for the top places, but that I’ve not had the chance to play yet. These are Fallout 3 and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the former is a vast improvement over the dull Oblivion, the latter is again a vast improvement over the dull Banjo games of the past. I may well later amend this list, but as the year came to an end, my favourite games were as follows.
3. Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 could actually be counted as my dissapointment of 2008 as well. That certainly explains its lowly position of third; in a year where I only really played 5 or so new games, no less. I had really high hopes for the sequel to one of my favourite games of 2006 and Gears of War 2 eventually failed to live up to its predecessor in several key areas. It all started off very promisingly as a lot of the niggling issues with the controls had been sorted out. For the most part all those occasions where your character would incorrectly clamp on to a piece of cover as you were trying to run, or a piece of scenery which looked like it should be cover, but wasn’t, have been ironed out.
This makes the failings in the rest of the game’s design all the more galling. The largest of the problems I had with Gears of War 2 was its story. More specifically the focus on Dominic Santiago’s missing wife. Perhaps if his wife had been mentioned more in the first game, or if Dom wasn’t such a complete idiot whenever he mentioned his wife, I could have identified with his issues. As it was that particular section of the story stuck out like a sore thumb and felt really tacked on. This feeling was made much worse by the juxtaposition of Dom’s whining in cutscenes with his ignorance of his wife’s plight as he is murdering hundreds of Locust in the action. Perhaps if more of his incidental speech during the action made mention of his wife, his story would have been more believable. As it was, it was like there was two Doms, the cutscene Dom who cared about his wife and the action Dom who cared about killing Locust. It made Dom a much less believable character and took the focus away from the stronger character of the piece. On that note, Marcus Fenix and Augustus “Cole Train” Cole were easily the standout characters in the first game. The relative lack of good moments involving these characters in the second game was extremely disappointing.
Finally on the Gears of War 2 front is its completely flat and dull difficulty curve. I played both Gears of War and Gears of War 2 on the Hardcore difficulty settings. Gears of War had a really satisfying difficulty curve; which saw the difficult increase steadily, until the game was really challenging near the end. This was topped off by a final boss which actually put up some sort of a fight. In Gears of War 2 you could be forgiven for thinking that the difficulty of the game was going in the opposite direction, getting consistently easier until you reach a pathetic final interaction (I refuse to call holding down the left and right triggers for about 30 seconds a boss). I’ve yet to try Gears 2 on the Insane difficulty level and this may yet redeem it, but it is extremely disappointing nonetheless.
In all; despite the advances in the reliability and responsiveness of certain play mechanics, and the undoubted graphical improvements, Gears of War 2 falls short of its predecessor as an overall package. It’s still a very good game, just a disappointment.
2. Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise came as something of a surprise to me. The demo felt really bad and it wasn’t just me, nearly everyone I knew was seriously worried about the game after the demo. This actually put me off buying the game for some time. Eventually a few trusted people spoke of how the game was initially disorienting, then they fell in love; so I picked it up. It has to be said that they were correct.
The first few hours I spent in Paradise City (the city in which this racing game is set) were extremely disorienting and frustrating. The open world setting seemed to work against the game and it seemed impossible to learn your way around the city. Suddenly though, everything clicks. There’s a magic moment where you start to learn the routes around the city and then suddenly the entire game makes sense.
Suddenly you realise that not only do you have the intensity of the previous games, with the no nonsense aggressive racing, but you also have a city which is designed as one giant toy. It quickly becomes a joy to simply drive around the city, not even entering events. In Paradise City, there is so much to see and do it’s a wonder I ever played anything else.
Burnout Paradise is the perfect example of a revolutionary entry in a franchise, it changed the game in a way which made it a much more compelling experience; if you took the time to fall in love with it. When you add this to the pitch perfect car handling, gloriously brutal crashes and beautiful graphics, you have a very compelling package. That Criterion also supported the game with a number of substantial and free updates, you have a genuinely great game, from a fantastic and forward thinking developer.
1. Rock Band / Rock Band 2
This game is much easier to summarise than all the others. Everybody wants to be a rock star, or at least pretend; just for a little while. With their wide ranging track-listings and plastic instruments, Rock Band can coax nearly anyone into giving it a go, even if only for a short time. Be it your parents playing a classic from their youth, or a friend unleashing their unknown singing talent and passion.
Rock Band / Rock Band 2 is the perfect party game, sober or aided by alcohol. It is the great unifier between gamers and non-gamers, more than that, it is simple pure fun. Gaming at its best then.
I’m currently attending a computing research conference being held in Cambridge. After yesterday’s long trip down, the conference kicked off properly today. I’m going to give some impressions of Cambridge as well as talk more generally about the conference.
I have to admit that with free breakfast, lunch and dinner, they are treating us well. Breakfast thankfully included some healthy option which is the route I chose to go down. I’m most definitely not a fan of fried food at 8 in the morning.
After registering and receiving a goody bag (which I’ve yet to sift through, but some of it looks pretty cool) we decided to venture into Cambridge itself. I have to say it truly is a lovely place. The architecture is absolutely stunning, with a number of different styles throughout as well. It feels incredibly English, a fact lost on my companions on this trip, Dundee this is not. One bizarre thing of note is the sheer number of bicycles, I have to wonder if this is a council policy. Sadly there wasn’t time to go to the Scott Polar Museum and I doubt there will be time later in the week.
The conference kicked off properly with a talk about security, specifically why people fail to heed the warnings which web browsers offer. While certainly interesting, I personally felt most of this was obvious. The current warnings generally aren’t very intrusive, or self explanatory. I can certainly see why the uneducated would ignore a phising warning (Incidentally Google Chrome has a very imposing screen for when a site’s SLL certificate is not up to date, or authenticated by a trusted certificate authority, a feature I wish other browsers would inclue). A number of solutions were offered, including replacing known phising sites with cartoon information on how to avoid phising, that seems sensible.
After this came lunch. We were once more in the Great Hall of Homerton College, which is certainly like nothing out of a university I have visited previously. This was a typical buffet type affair, triangle sandwiches and things on (classy) sticks, with the odd piece of chinese food thrown in.
On to the Grand Challenges in Computing and I picked the track which had sessions on In Vivo - In Silico and Architecture of The Brain and Mind. In Vivo - In Silico was a fascinating talk on the attempts to model relatively simple organisms (a simple weed) growth through computing simulations. It turns out that the techniques for this can allow for results pretty close to the real thing and it seems like a fantastic area of research for the future. This could offer great benefits as it allows the simulation of mutations which occur when a particular gene is killed in the organism, this has fairly obvious practical uses. Architecture of The Brain and Mind focused a lot on neuroscience aspects of computing, touching on neural nets and also attempts in research to try to model how the human brain works. A particularly interesting attempt here is a massively parallel processing structure (roughly 20 million processors). I wasn’t quite as enthused by this as In Vivo - In Silico, but that’s probably because the talk covered areas I already knew a reasonable amount about.
Finally the day ended with a welcome dinner, again in the Great Hall. The dinner was a slightly odd experience, with the food and plates appearing and disappearing without so much as an explanation, or any interaction at all. This was topped off by a bizarre collaborative drumming sessions (I’m sure designed to get everyone loosened up). Admittedly that was more fun than I’d probably like to admit.
It’s that time of year again folks. I’m going to be working on getting at least a few lists written and up here sometime before the end of the month. These will include my most extensive and in depth music list ever and a probably somewhat pathetic gaming one. It’s a shame when your main hobby (gaming) gets pushed to the side in favour of work.
Look out for the start of something in the next few days.
You’ve been in Perth too long. “Due to a fatality at a level crossing, the line has been closed at Stirling,” says the conductor. You sit and wait for instructions. “The line will be closed for up to eight hours, please wait while we organise alternative transport”, half an hour goes by as you sit and wait and wonder. “The line has opened” comes the good news and the train starts to leave the station. The train stops. You arrive back in Perth to be told to get off the train and go to platform six. You find yourself on a train to Edinburgh. You’re trying to keep Laura informed, you’ve told her to find a way to Glasgow. You can only imagine how confusing the stream of messages is.
All of a sudden you find yourself in your hometown, it’s eight and you wanted to be in Glasgow by now. Instead you’re 45 miles south of your starting point, some 30 miles south east of your previous station. It’s 30 minutes to Edinburgh and another hour to Glasgow, your heart sinks and you wish you’d just gone home.
When you switch trains in Edinburgh, you’re informed by the conductor that the track has re-opened at Stirling. You curse your luck and sit there stewing away. Still, you are not outwardly agrieved like most others. You accept your fate. “You get a few of these at this time of year,” says the conductor. “It gets near Christmas and people…” he trails off. He has no way of knowing its suicide, nor does anybody else. You suspect he’s right nonetheless.
You arrive in Glasgow and you’re angry. Angry because its taken over three and a half hours to make a journey that’s an hour and a half. Angry because you don’t like missing support acts. Guilty because you know you’re angry because somebody lost their life.
You reach your gig, you’ve not missed the main acts. You sink a pint to make you feel better. It doesn’t. You have another anyway, hoping this time it might make a difference. Your singer cheers you up. You’re about to tell the idiot in the second row to shut up. “Shut up and show some respect,” you think to yourself. He leaves just as you pluck up the courage to do something. You get your book signed by your singer. He’s a long way from home and you know this cheered him up.
The main act comes on and you forget all about your earlier woes. They work their magic, make you feel like this moment is all that matters. They laugh and smile and play and you listen and sing.
One life. Three and a half hours. Two acts. You go home and there are no problems now.
So, things have been a little quiet here recently. It’s not because of a lack of things to write about either, I have plenty of things that I want to give my opinion on. Sadly though, it has not been possible. University has been so incredibly busy, it’s unreal.
In theory, I shouldn’t be quite so busy from now on. In reality I’m probably going to be spending most of my days and nights working away in the labs still. While onemajor time sink at university finished, that has meant it’s time to start the mad struggle to catch up with everything else. Regardless, I hope to have more time to post here in the near future.
In other news, I am now no longer able to even pretend to myself that I’m not an honest to goodness adult. At first I was convinced being 21 makes no difference, but I think psychologically it probably does. That’s weird though, it is only a number afterall.
